The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-06-15
KILLED HIS GRANDS0NS.
The Double Crime of all Aged
Pennsylvania WidOwer.
Numbering Two Little Boys so that
He Might Marry Again.

The town of Lebanon, Penn, mas been
in a ferment of excitement over a
double murder perpetrated at Annvllle. lit
tie village five miles away. William
Showers, aged fifty-nine, a widower, and
a cigarmaker, lived on the out
skirts of Annville, in a modest little
home. Nothing was known against him.
Living with him were two boys named Sam
uel and Willie Hoffnagle, aged three and five
years They were his grandsons. being the
children of his deceased daughter. Their care
devolved upon Showers, and he chated under
the additional expense they caused.
Showers became engaged to be married to
a widow named Mrs Sergeant, but the
woman finally told him that she would
not marry him unless the children were
put out to board. Showers suddenly
toward his little grandsons. He told
Mrs. Sergeant that they should be sent away
to live and about two weeks ago the boys
disappeared from the house, and Showers told
the neighbors he had sent them to live with
man near Tower City, in Schuylkill county.
Then q suspicion arose that oil was not
right, and whisperings reached tue officials
in Lebanon that double murder had PROB,
ably been committed. Showers told
conflicting stories. and Constable Fa
gan went to his home and arrested him. 1t
was 9 o'clock Monday morning when the
doors closed behind him in the Lebanon Jail:
Still he was only arrested on suspicion until
an investigation could be made.
First he said he had given the boys in charge
good home in Texas Then he reported that
be had driven the boys to Tower City
and given them into the charge of
farmer. Later he said that while on
the way to Tower City he sent
the boys back for something he had lost on
the road, and they had been kidnapped by
tramps in the vicinity of lndiantown Gap,
dangerous place.
Showers declared upon his solemn oath that
he did not know the whereabouts of the chill
dren, and tears streamed down his cheeks Gs
he called upon God as his witness. Many OF
the officials who held conversation with him
were inclined to believe him. Still the Dis
trict- Attorney was not satisfied, and ordered
strict search of Showers premises.
Late Tuesday afternoon the bodies of the
boys were found buried in the lot occupied
by Showers house. The bodies were found
covered by only two feet of Garth They
were six feet apart. and about twenty yards
from the house. They had been strangled
with small cord. and there were deep in
dentations in their necks where the string
had been tightly twisted four or five times.
They were in their nightgowns.
After they had been strangled the murderer,
to make his work sure. battered in their
heads. and then carried the boys out in the
night and buried them in the holes that had
evidently been prepared in advance. The
body of one of the boys looked as if he had
been beaten with club after he had been
choked. and they had apparently been in the
ground two weeks.
1t was we'll for him that Showers was safe
in Lebanon Jail. Had he been outside the
Jail when the bodies were found he would
have been lynched on the spot. The greatest
excitement prevailed. When confronted with
the evidences of his crime, the wretched muir
derer confessed all, saying that his desire to
marry Mrs. Sergeant had caused him to put
the little boys out of the way, and that he
murdered them in their sleep.